A friend like no other
by Aggie Deneys
Summary: Damian Wayne/Robin realizes he has a strange friendship with Irey West/Impulse. He wouldn't have it any other way.


Disclaimer: These characters aren't mine.

"Maybe we should restart Young Justice."

Damian Wayne, aka Robin, rolled his eyes and ignored the red-headed girl seated next to him. Her comment didn't warrant a response. Young Justice. Tt. What a joke. Like he would want to restart some stupid team Drake had formed. It was bad enough Grayson had tried to pawn him off on the Teen Titans. Not only wasn't he a teenager yet, Drake had been there. It seemed that no matter what he did, he was always reminded of Drake, always in Drake's shadow. And they wondered why he wanted to kill Drake.

"What do you think?"

Damian sighed and looked at his companion, Irey West, aka Impulse. "It's a stupid idea."

"Why? Wouldn't it be cool if we had our own team like Bart and Tim did?"

"No."

"You just don't like the idea because Tim was a founding member." Damian rolled his eyes again. He would never admit she was partially right. If Drake were involved in something, he wanted nothing to do with it, the notable exception being Robin. Besides, being Robin had been a way to spend time with his father and look how well that had turned out. Instead of spending time with his father, he was stuck with Grayson. The only consolation seemed to be that Drake hadn't partnered up with his father either. That would have been unforgiveable.

Out of the corner of his eye, he glanced at his companion. Her green eyes were busy taking in their surroundings. Her fingers restlessly tapped against the roof's edge. Her legs never stopped swinging. She was constant movement. It was a bit frightening at times how well she seemed to understand him. She seemed to understand him better than anyone, which was rather odd since their individual families and personalities were complete opposites. Then again, speedsters and Robins seemed to have some cosmic connection. Only Jason seemed to have been spared a speedster. Damian wasn't certain if that was a good or bad thing.

"I don't know why you don't like Tim. He's really cool, not that I really know him or anything. I keep wishing I'd see him with Bart sometime." She shrugged. "Bart talks about him a lot. My dad's talked about Tim, too. They say he's really smart, probably even smarter than Uncle Dick, even though no one's as good as Uncle Dick when it comes to all those jumps and flips and things he can do."

Uncle Dick. Damian briefly wondered how severe Grayson's punishment would be if he shut up his companion, at least for the next hour or so. He could do it. One well-placed hit and she'd be out cold. As tempting as the thought was, he knew Grayson well enough that the punishment just wouldn't be worth it. Besides, Grayson would probably tell his father and Damian didn't want to disappoint his father. He could care less about Grayson and Drake, but his father was another story. His father he would honor.

There was also a good possibility Grayson would tell the speedsters…or West – Irey – would tell the speedsters. Damian knew he had to be careful. The speedsters could catch him. He knew he could probably take on one of them, maybe even two, but he guessed he would have to worry about at least five speedsters trying to kick his butt, as well as her mom. Those just weren't good odds. The only one he probably wouldn't have to worry about was her brother. Her brother would probably congratulate him. Damian inwardly smiled at the thought. He definitely needed to spend some time with Jai.

"Have you ever seen Uncle Dick perform? It must have been fun to be in a circus. My dad says that he and his parents were really, really good and that Uncle Dick used to be one of the only people in the world who could do a quadruple jump and he was only eight when he learned how. I mean more people know how to do it now, but I'm sure none of them did it when they were eight."

Damian started to pleat and unpleat a seam in his cape. Anything to keep his hands busy. Anything to keep from throttling the girl sitting next to him. Listening to Grayson's accomplishments was just as bad as listening to Drake's. Yet another shadow he had to live in. If she had to talk, which seemed to be some biological imperative in her, why did she always have to talk about Grayson and Drake? Were there no other subjects? He'd rather listen to brainless chatter about some stupid television show or movie than listen to how great and wonderful Grayson and Drake were.

"So, has Uncle Dick taught you any of those moves? I mean he is your mentor. And he was Tim's mentor for awhile, maybe he still is, but that means he probably taught Tim some of the moves. Even if he wasn't Tim's mentor, I'm sure he would have still taught him because they are brothers." Damian waited for the comment to come. He knew exactly what she would say next. He didn't have to wait long. "It must be so cool to have them as brothers."

"They are not my brothers." It was a twisted little conversation they seemed to have at least once whenever they saw each other. She would insist Grayson and Drake were his brothers. He would insist they weren't. For whatever reason, she seemed to worship the ground on which Grayson and Drake walked. They could seemingly do no wrong in her eyes. If only she could see the world from his eyes, maybe then she would understand why they were not his brothers.

"Would you just get over it already? Geez, don't you get it that no matter what you say, they are your brothers whether you like it or not." He again rolled his eyes. "What would your dad say if he heard you say that Uncle Dick and Tim weren't your brothers? I mean they are his sons and you are his son and that makes all of you brothers."

It was time to change the subject, or at least try to change the subject. "Why are we talking about this?"

Irey shrugged. "It's something to do." She was just as bad as Grayson. Constant talk, talk, talk. At least Drake was quiet. It was one of the few things Drake had going for him. "Just sitting here is boring."

"Then why did you come along?"

"Because I figured you would be here." There was nothing to say to that comment. Luckily, she didn't expect him to. "Wow, you can really see a lot of Gotham from up here. It's actually rather pretty."

Damian looked at the same horizon. All he saw was a dirty city filled with crime. He would never call it pretty. Compared to Central City it looked dirty. Then again, even Keystone looked rundown compared to Central City, but was an absolute gem compared to Gotham.

"I mean, would you just want to sit here and do nothing? Because that's all there is to do. Nothing. I mean they could at least let us sit in there with them and listen to their meeting. We might learn something." Correction, she might learn something. Damian already knew more than most of those heroes sitting in that conference room. "So, why did you come along?" He remained silent. Irey glanced at him. "Well, what do you want to talk about?"

"Nothing."

"Wow. Big surprise. What do you and Uncle Dick talk about?"

"Nothing."

"Let me guess, you and Tim talk about nothing, too, right?"

Damian refused to answer. Why did he spend time with this girl? She irritated him. She was annoying. She talked nonstop. She insisted Grayson and Drake were his brothers. She insisted that he call her Irey. Not only was she irritating and annoying, she was demanding as well. Yet, he found himself constantly spending time with her. What was up with that?

As much as he hated to admit it, and he would never verbally admit it to anyone – he would rather die first – a small part of him enjoyed spending time her. She understood him. She accepted him. She let him be himself. Sure, she tried to get him to change, but it was half-hearted at best. It was more like she went through the motions because she thought she was expected to say those things.

Irey sighed as if the world were upon her slender shoulders. He knew he frustrated her as much as she frustrated him. Yet, she continued to talk. "So, if you don't want to restart Young Justice are you ever going to join the Teen Titans? Bart said you were in San Francisco the other weekend." Damian was fairly certain Bart had probably said a few other things as well, maybe not to Irey, but probably to her dad and uncle. "I mean, it's sort of a tradition that all the Robins are part of the Teen Titans at some point." A smile touched her lips. "Just like Kid Flash is part of the Teen Titans, too."

"You aren't Kid Flash."

"No duh. At least not yet. But once Bart becomes the Flash, I'll become Kid Flash." Great. Four Flashes. Just what the world didn't need. "So?"

"So what?"

"So, are you going to join the Teen Titans?"

"…"

"Think of how much fun it would be. We'd be on the same team." She looked at him expectantly. He remained silent. "You know, Uncle Dick was the leader and Tim is the leader. That means you'd probably be the leader, too." Yes, she knew him well. But, he knew her, too. She was trying to coax him into agreeing with her. He remained silent. "Oh, why do you have to make everything so difficult? Why do I put up with you? You are so annoying!" Damian remained silent. Ten seconds of silence passed. "So, did you…"

Damian tuned her out, but he inwardly smiled. Sitting here with Irey, waiting for Grayson and West to finish their meeting, he really wouldn't have it any other way.


End file.
